Now in paperback A gorgeous collection of Classic Japanese ghost stories. These stories introduce some of the most chilling folklore from a gloriously gothic period of Japanese culture. It is the first time that many of these stories have been collected into an anthology from various authors. For readers of: THE PENGUIN BOOK OF JAPANESE STORIES, THE HAUNTING SEASON and Vintage Classics' own CLASSIC GHOST STORIES Each story is preceded by calligraphy penned by a Japanese Calligrapher. Lafcadio Hearn's Japanese anthologies sell very well in the US Stories sourced from collections by Lafcadio Hearn, Yei Theodora Ozaki and Richard Gordon Smith, all dating from around the turn of the 20th century: Lafcadio Hearn's Kokoro (1895), In Ghostly Japan (1899), Kotto (1902), Kwaidan (1904) and Kimiko (1923); Yei Theodora Ozaki's Japanese Fairy Tales (1903); and Richard Gordon Smith's Ancient Tales and Folklore of Japan (1908). These works were composed during a time of great transition in Japan as it grappled with modernizing forces, as well as a period of deep fascination with traditional Japanese culture in the West. All of the stories were originally written in English for the purpose of introducing a Western readership to the folklore and mythology of Japanese culture, and as such originally included footnotes and references to help aid the reader's understanding. For this edition, we have retained as few footnotes from the original texts as possible, taking the liberty to abridge those we have kept so they remain unintrusive yet provide context where necessary.

Where some footnotes originally provided a simple translation, we have included that in the text in brackets. Otherwise, the stories remain unaltered. Finally, we have added initials and the year of publication at the end of each story to indicate the author and collection from which these tales were sourced.